ZAGREB, Sept 26 (Hina) - Croatia's interior minister said on Tuesday security on the state border with Yugoslavia was peaceful for the time being and that there had been no need to increase border police control over Sunday's
elections in the neighbouring state. Minister Sime Lucin told reporters in Zagreb some personnel changes had been carried out in the Service for the Protection of the Constitutional Order (SZUP), and that it was no longer part of the Interior Ministry. The SZUP has become a government service, thus no longer serving for the preservation of a political clan, but to perform its task, he said. Lucin said police had pressed charges against and dismissed a number of people from the SZUP due to illegal and unauthorised wire-tapping which, he added, had been ordered by people who even today were sitting in the other intelligence service, the Office for National Security (UNS). The minister
ZAGREB, Sept 26 (Hina) - Croatia's interior minister said on
Tuesday security on the state border with Yugoslavia was peaceful
for the time being and that there had been no need to increase border
police control over Sunday's elections in the neighbouring state.
Minister Sime Lucin told reporters in Zagreb some personnel changes
had been carried out in the Service for the Protection of the
Constitutional Order (SZUP), and that it was no longer part of the
Interior Ministry.
The SZUP has become a government service, thus no longer serving for
the preservation of a political clan, but to perform its task, he
said.
Lucin said police had pressed charges against and dismissed a
number of people from the SZUP due to illegal and unauthorised wire-
tapping which, he added, had been ordered by people who even today
were sitting in the other intelligence service, the Office for
National Security (UNS).
The minister assessed cooperation with the UNS as satisfactory, but
said it employed many people without real work to do. "That's why
they engage in stupid things, digging into my and my associates'
past."
Commenting on a statement Prime Minister Ivica Racan made in London
yesterday about a broken weaponry smuggling chain, Lucin said
Croatian police and the SZUP had located a weaponry warehouse in the
southern region of Dalmatia, thus breaking the smuggling chain.
The action engaged colleagues from a British intelligence service,
according to whose reports, the arms were intended for Irish
terrorists. The court will have the final say, said Lucin.
He told the news conference some police officers were involved in
smuggling people across state borders, pointing out this was a big
issue because Bosnia-Herzegovina does not have a visa regime.
Every policeman caught in a criminal activity will be suspended and
subjected to disciplinary action, said the interior minister,
adding that over the last six months, 610 policemen had undergone
disciplinary action and 110 lost their job.
Croatian police are "controlling and monitoring" the situation on
the state border the whole time, Lucin said, voicing satisfaction
with the good cooperation achieved with the Croatian armed forces
in the border areas.
(hina) ha jn